Standards

The City of Belleville is fully prepared for Ontario's first accessibility standard when it comes into force Friday, says the chairman of the accessibility committee.

Coun. Garnet Thompson said municipal employees have been properly trained to accommodate the implementation of the standard -- for customer service -- which all public sector organization's must be in compliance with.

When posting documents on web sites, they have to follow the same accessibility requirements that the site does. For example, when the web site needs to comply with Section 508, PDF documents do too. There are a few things which I find are often overlooked when creating accessible PDF documents, in the following you can read about those and ensure that you address those issues as well.

PETAWAWA – The town is well positioned to meet the legal requirements of the Customer Service Standard policy as laid out in the province’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

As a public sector organization, the town must comply with the standard by Jan. 1, 2010, while private businesses, non-profit organizations and other service providers must comply by 2012.

ESSEX, Ont., — Governments, schools and companies are throwing more information out all the time through their Internet websites.

But even with specialized equipment and software, persons with disabilities often can't get the messages at all because of the websites' design.

“It can be very frustrating,” Linda Saxon, vice president of the Essex County Accessibility Advisory Committee, told county politicians recently.

At its 2935th Transport, Telecommunications and Energy council meeting in Brussels, yesterday, the European Council adopted the following conclusions about how to deliver an accessible information society:

The Council of the European Union,

1. WELCOMES

a) The European Commission Communication of 1 December 2008 entitled “Towards an accessible information Society” .

b) The results of the e-inclusion Ministerial conference and exhibition held in Vienna from 30 November to 2 December 2008 and the conclusions from this event.

People often ask me what is more important, creating web sites which are fully accessible for people with disabilities, or ones which comply with local or national standards. There is a point to doing both, but probably a combination of the two works best.